


A not-so-handy situation

by Lady3ellewrites



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Humor, Identity Reveal, Ladynoir | Adrien Agreste as Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng as Ladybug, Mild Hurt/Comfort, and sort of adrienette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-16
Updated: 2020-09-16
Packaged: 2021-03-07 02:01:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26499061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lady3ellewrites/pseuds/Lady3ellewrites
Summary: No, the trouble had arisen that evening when Marinette had readied herself for patrol. Of course, she knew her arm wouldn’t permanently repair itself thanks to the magical ladybugs she assumed lived somewhere in her yoyo. That would have been truly miraculous, and perhaps not very inconspicuous. She had thought, though, that it would get a temporary fix.Or at least a Lucky Charm-themed cast.In which Ladybug breaks her arm and finds out that she won't be able to fight as long as she's injured, and that her Miraculous won't help camouflage her friends' signatures on her cast. Chat Noir helps tame down her fears, but also wants to join in on the signing fun.Written for the ML Writers Guild September 2020 Event, based on the prompt: "Do you mind if I sign, too?"
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 10
Kudos: 304
Collections: Miraculous Writer's Guild September Event 2020





	A not-so-handy situation

Ladybug really enjoyed discovering new information about her suit. She would sometimes stay up most of the night chatting with Tikki, who talked her through the different evolutions of the Ladybug Miraculous depending on the main threats of the era. As time went by, the suit had become bulkier, reaching its peak with Joan of Arc’s full metal armour, before slowly losing its mass to become more manageable for its wearer. The yoyo had gone from being secondary to the wearer’s weapon of choice to being absolutely essential in fights as a means of transport, of attack, a shield, and of course as the conjurer of the ultimate final blow: the Lucky Charm.

Ladybug also discovered some specificities on her own, generally in her spare time. She had, for instance, found that her Miracuphone was a gold mine of information about her powers, both current and to come. It had a whole encyclopedia section as well, which she liked to read through when she was the first one to arrive on patrol. She was particularly excited about the power ups that she and Chat Noir were bound to use one day or the other. She wasn’t sure she was looking forward to using them per se, as it would mean that their opponent was particularly powerful, but she definitely thought they were cool.

There were some details about her suit that Ladybug would have preferred not to find out about first hand, though. For instance, the fact that if she broke her arm as a civilian, it would not be temporarily mended when she transformed into her superhero alter ego.

It had all happened very fast. Marinette was babysitting Manon, as she did every Wednesday afternoon. Both had adopted a nice little routine since the first time they’d met; whereas Marinette had once watched over the little girl’s every move, they now could do their own little thing in the same room, Manon generally favouring the handmade dolls while her babysitter casually worked on her designs. That particular week, the little girl had decided to be a little more adventurous and to climb up Marinette’s mezzanine to recreate a rooftop battle. The sight of her Chat Noir puppet dangling above her as she briefly looked up from her page brought Marinette’s attention back to Manon, who was leaning dangerously forward above the railing. Before the teenager could say anything, she’d seen the child topple over and had instinctively jumped to the rescue.

Manon had escaped from the experience relatively unscathed, with just a little bump on her forehead. The doctors had monitored it just in case, but had quickly concluded that it wasn’t anything serious.

Marinette, on the other hand, had suffered a little more from the incident. Doing her best to cushion the little girl’s fall, she’d landed badly on her right wrist; it needed to be immobilized for the next six weeks as both of the bones sported hairline fractures.

Any other teenager would only have been slightly inconvenienced by the temporary disability, especially on their dominant hand, and that was how Marinette had felt at first. Arriving at school the next morning, she’d found that both the aesthetics of her handwriting and the time it took for her to write were thoroughly impaired by the cast. But she also found that help bloomed as easily as daisies in spring all around her. Starting with the boy who sat just in front of her.

The young girl had been over the Moon when Adrien had told her he’d take notes for her and photocopy them. The photocopy would be for him, of course, the original being far more legible in his opinion. He even helped carry her bag between classes. Marinette had mentally thanked Manon for bringing her such luck.

No, the trouble had arisen that evening when Marinette had readied herself for patrol. Of course, she knew her arm wouldn’t permanently repair itself thanks to the magical ladybugs she assumed lived somewhere in her yoyo. That would have been truly miraculous, and perhaps not very inconspicuous. She had thought, though, that it would get a temporary fix. 

Or at least a Lucky Charm-themed cast. 

Unfortunately for her, it remained adorned with her classmates’ signatures, which were far from being very discreet.

Ladybug paced around the rooftop, arms crossed against the cool November air as she considered her situation. She wouldn’t be able to fight as well, if at all, with her cast on. She’d had a couple of disastrous attempts at getting on the roof with her yoyo using her left hand before finally making it, which wouldn’t do under pressure. Using her right hand was out of the question, the pain in her wrist stabbing her anytime she made a sudden movement. She’d sent Chat Noir a message telling him to meet her earlier, if he could, as soon as she’d landed; she knew his chances of getting it in time were slim, since she had yet to find a way to relay messages when not transformed, but she still hoped.

She felt herself spiral as she imagined all the worst case scenarios, but she knew the “disaster” alarm that rang in her head would soon vanish. She could always count on Chat to come up with good ideas when she panicked. As well as provide a comfortable shoulder. Sometimes more the latter than the former, her partner tending to throw in a few silly ideas in the mix to get a smile from her. Relaxing a little did help her clear her vision of things and tone down her anxiety, though.

The thought that she would not be able to catch her partner if he fell filled her head out of nowhere, making her stop in the middle of the roof. She hid her face in her hands and did her best to control her breathing, which was turning into hyperventilation.

A small thump sound she could’ve recognised anywhere made her look up.

"Hey Chaton, thank you for making it so quickly." She said, relieved to see her partner walk up to her. She repressed the urge to hug him. "How did you know you needed to look at your Miracuphone?"

"Cat senses." He replied breezily as he kissed her healthy hand.

Chat was ready to share a lot of things with Ladybug. The fact that he'd been practising his superhero landings by ziplining across his room and jumping off his climbing wall as Chat Noir was not one of them. Especially since the sound of the incoming message had almost made him lose his balance.

"Question is, since when do you write to me outside of working hours, and what more, to tell me to meet you earlier? Has someone finally decided on taking me up on my date proposition?" He waggled his eyebrows, trying to keep up a joking demeanor when inside his heart was beating a lot quicker than its normal resting rate.

Ladybug rolled her eyes. "Someday, maybe." She winked at him. He would probably deserve it if they managed to survive the six weeks. "Right now, we've got a situation." She held up her plastered arm.

"You're injured!" Chat gasped, reaching for her cast. She hid her arm behind her back before he could touch it in an attempt to conceal its decorations.

"Thanks, captain obvious."

"But... How? I thought our suits took most of our hits for us?"

"They do. But believe it or not, I don't go around wearing mine all the time. It would be a bit of a giveaway if I did." She stage-whispered. "It happened yesterday when I was just minding my own business; I thought the suit would do something about it but here we are.”

Chat nodded gravely. "You’d think so, but clearly our predecessors didn’t face that kind of situation that often or it wouldn’t be a problem for us. I should have told you when I got hurt and discovered that for myself.”

“What happened to you?” Ladybug frowned, trying to remember an injured Chat.

“I sprained my ankle as a civilian during a fight once. I managed, but it was painful." He winced at the memory.

Ladybug looked at him quizzically. "What were you doing as a civilian during a fight?"

Chat's eyes widened. He could hardly say he’d been saving her from Riposte. And he’d done his best to camouflage his aching, so chances were she wouldn’t remember anyway. "Erm... You know, I was on my way, but the fight had already started!"

"Oh, right." She cleared her throat, but frowned as she tried to recall when Chat had fought with a bad ankle. Surely she would’ve noticed.

Chat cut in before she could add anything or start on a track that could make her connect the dots. “Anyway, what should we do?”

Ladybug focused her attention on him again, and smiled. “I thought we'd brainstorm together.”

“Do you think we can ask Hawkmoth for a winter truce?” He asked hopefully.

“I wish.” Ladybug chuckled. She sat down at the edge of the building and patted the space next to her for Chat to join her. “Should we try switching Miraculouses again?”

“You’re the guardian, you tell me.”

Ladybug pondered. “I just… don’t know, really. Master Fu never recommended against it, but he never really encouraged it either.” She desolated that she hadn’t talked to him more about swapping Miraculouses before he lost his memories, but quickly swatted the thought away. _No use crying over spilt milk._

Chat saw the mild distress on his partner’s face and decided to brush off the idea as best he could. “You know, it was difficult enough when we were both working together, maybe it wouldn’t be such a great idea to try again just now. Besides, you’d probably end up cataclysming your cast, which wouldn’t be great.”

“Maybe I could just lend my Miraculous to somebody else for a bit?” She asked tentatively.

Chat shook his head vehemently. “Absolutely not. You are the only Ladybug I want to work with. You and me against the rest of the world, remember that?” He squeezed her hand. “Maybe you could take a bit of a time off and stealthily lurk in the shadows to try and figure a plan out while I distract the Akumas?”

“That might work maybe five minutes, but I’m pretty sure Hawkmoth would soon discover something’s up.” Ladybug shook her head. “Hawkmoth’s evil, persistent and many other things, but unfortunately for us, he’s not stupid.”

“Eh… I don’t know. His favourite target _is_ Mr. Ramier.” Chat jabbed.

“You do have a point there.” She chuckled.

“Circling back to what you were saying earlier though, how about we give other Miraculouses out? You know, get the team back together again? Viperion could be particularly useful here, I think.”

Ladybug thought about it. Having second chances to defeat the Akumas and stall Hawkmoth’s discovery of her injury did sound good, but…

“It’s an excellent idea, Chaton, I’m just worried that Hawkmoth will use their identities against them now that they’re out in the open. I wouldn’t want their friends and families to be targeted.” She made a face and thought a little more. 

“We could try wearing additional Miraculouses though. You know, return of Snake Noir and Dragon Bug?”

Chat pursed his lips. As much as he’d appreciated the Snake Noir experience, he was still a little scarred by his time as Aspik. Not to mention, Ladybug had not noticed how similar his merged design was to Aspik’s when they were fighting Miracle Queen, but she was bound to connect the dots sooner rather than later if she was confronted with the look on a regular basis.

“You know what, let’s play it by ear. For all we know, there might not even be any akumatisations in the near future; don’t forget we’re entering the Christmas season soon. Who can feel bad when there’s so much festivity in the air?” He winked. “And even if there is a battle, we’ll both have to show up anyway, so let’s keep our Miraculouses for now, and we can always reevaluate the situation then. And let’s maybe think about new Miraculous wielders in the meantime.”

“Are you sure that’s enough? And that you don’t want to exchange Miraculouses just in case?” She asked worriedly. Her nodding partner did little to untense her shoulders. “We really need to make sure we both arrive on time, then.”

“I don’t think we’ve ever had a problem with that in the past.”

Ladybug made a doubtful face, thinking back to all the times Chat had been late. They could probably still be counted on the fingers of a hand, but it always seemed to happen at the worst moment. She wasn’t sure she would be able to save someone from falling down the Montparnasse Tower in her state.

“Don’t sweat it, Bugaboo. You know you can always count on me.” _As long as you don’t insist on saving Adrien Agreste and dropping him off miles away from the fight scene, that is._ He’d have to make sure he hid well enough that it wouldn’t come to that. “Besides, as much as I appreciated our little switcharoo act, I wouldn’t want to spring Plagg on you for the next six weeks.”

“You don’t mean that, Plagg is so sweet!”

“Not sure you’d say that about the Camembert bill, though.” He let out a dry laugh. “Also, me wearing earrings would be a little less inconspicuous than a ring.”

“But the only ears of yours I ever see are those.” She pointed to his cat ears. 

“And I doubt you keep them on as a civilian.” She smirked.

Chat chuckled. “Believe it or not, my lady, I’m actually a very well-groomed cat. Do you really think I go around with this untamed mane all the time?” He raked a hand through his golden locks.

“I never know with you.” She shrugged, a small smile tugging at her lips.

Chat stuck his tongue out and got up, the chiming of a nearby church reminding him they should get going on their patrol.

Ladybug got ready to get up as well, but struggled slightly with the lack of support from her right wrist.

“Need a _hand_ with that?” Chat smirked, extending his hand.

“Har-har.” She rolled her eyes, taking his offered hand nevertheless.

She crossed her arms, the signatures adorning her cast showing a little as she did so. Chat noticed them for the first time. He was reminded of the excitement that had surrounded Marinette’s cast-signing in the morning.

“Do you mind if I sign, too?” He asked almost shyly, pointing at it.

“I would love to, Chaton, but I don't have a pen.” Ladybug pouted. She was about to say there were bound to be future occasions for him to do so -it wasn’t going anywhere- but he cut in before she could.

“That doesn’t matter, Marinette lives nearby, I’m sure we could go ask her!” 

Chat said excitedly, holding back the fact she had broken her arm too. It was too recent for him to have learned about it anywhere else than school, which would threaten his identity.

Ladybug felt panic invade her. “Wait, actually I think I might have one!” She said hurriedly as she rummaged through her yoyo. She hoped that she hadn’t put away the pen she generally left in her purse the last time she’d tidied it. Her prayers were answered as her fingers closed around it. “Aha!”

She handed the felt-tip pen to Chat and turned around momentarily to find a good spot for him to sign. She wanted to hide the other messages as much as possible to prevent Chat from drawing clues from them, so the front of her cast was a no-go zone. Her inner arm, on the other hand, she’d kept for the people who mattered most to her. So far, it only sported messages from Alya, Nino and Adrien. It was only fitting that Chat should sign there as well.

“Here’s perfect.” She extended her broken arm as much as she could while keeping her other hand on her friends’ sketches.

Chat Noir was glad to notice that his signature would lay on her heart if she crossed her arms. He smiled to himself as he started drawing. He knew exactly what he was doing; he’d had practise in the morning with Marinette.

Ladybug watched him toil away, amused by his concentration. She let out a small chuckle at the sight of his blepping tongue, making her fingers slip out of place and momentarily revealing Adrien’s drawing. Chat caught a glimpse of it before she adjusted her grip, and found what he’d seen of the design vaguely familiar. Unable to investigate it further, he shrugged off the déjà vu feeling and got back to work.

When he finally let go of her arm with a satisfied smile, Ladybug looked at the finished product curiously. Adrien and Chat’s signatures stood side by side, and she felt like she was playing a game of differences. Apart from the fact that Adrien’s rose was pink (her school pencil case was very diversified when it came to pens), that the Ladybug was also coloured, and that Adrien had added a small smiley face where Chat had drawn a paw print, both drawings were pretty much identical. She knew her fingers had slipped, but definitely not enough for her partner to see the other message and copy it - he’d already been quite advanced on his own.

“You know, if you weren’t inspired, I could’ve had you sign my cast some other day.” She said, cautiously eyeing her partner’s reaction. “It’s not like we’re not going to see each other in the next six weeks.”

Chat looked confused. “I was inspired! You’re Ladybug, and I’m not going to pass up an opportunity to give you a rose.” He winked.

Ladybug paused. Either Adrien and Chat were very in sync, or… “Out of curiosity… What did you sign on your friend’s cast earlier?” She asked as breezily as she could muster. Her heart was threatening to bust out of her ribcage at any moment. Whether from simple anticipation, trepidation or relief, she could not tell.

Chat blushed slightly and stammered the beginning of an answer before narrowing his eyes. “Wait, I never said I signed anyone’s cast today.”

“Did you, though?”

“Yes.” He conceded. How she had learned about it got pushed aside by the thought she could be envious of what he’d drawn for somebody else. His face broke into an impish grin. “Is some-bug-y jealous?”

“Of course not!” Ladybug rolled her eyes.

“I purr-omise, yours was a completely original design.” It technically was. Marinette had a coloured version. Nothing to do with what he’d just drawn in black and white. With the shading he’d given the rose, it was clear that it was red.

“Then how do you explain this?” Ladybug showed her inner arm.

Chat’s jaw dropped as his eyes darted between both signatures. “Ma… Marinette?”

“Well, I guess that solves our communication conundrum.” Ladybug laughed, engulfing him in a tight hug. It enabled her to hide her blushing and ground her before she could fully comprehend the fact that she was, in fact, hugging Adrien Agreste, and not “just” her Chaton. She hoped her increasingly racing heart didn’t betray her feelings.

Chat Noir held onto her just as tightly, trying to regain coherence.

When he did, though, there was no stopping the gushing about Ladybug and Marinette.

Needless to say, patrol was canceled that day.


End file.
